Two weeks ago was the 50th anniversary of The Rumble in the Jungle, and all of the bouquets being laid at the feet of that classic heavyweight championship boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman got me thinking about — of all things — this weekend’s heavyweight championship fight at UFC 309.
What’s the connection? It has to do with how diminished expectations don’t always foreshadow reality.
Ali’s upset of Foreman is remembered today as one of the fight game’s greatest moments. Still, going into the 1974 bout, it was almost universally expected to be a massacre by “Big George,” the brawny, destructive, undefeated 25-year-old champion. Ali was 3½ years removed from his championship run and was 32. If he was still floating like a butterfly, it was a sluggish, less elusive float that seemed destined to be swatted down by one of Foreman’s…
